Yellow Rose Brewery

Closed, 8/2000

Blonde Ox

Yellow Rose's foray into the ultra-light blonde category is another well made beer for an already formidable line-up. Lighter than Bubba Dog, but still maintaining a nice malty start to the taste. The finish is crisp and clean with a hint of wheat. No detectable hops, but that's okay in this style. Very well brewed and likely to sell well in the current beer climate. You may have seen this beer referred to as "Blonde Bull" in its early days of production...a certain mega-brewer took exception to the "bull" moniker and YRBC had to change yet another name.

Bubba Dog

This is an American style wheat beer using an English ale yeast. Very wheaty and clean tasting, this is perhaps the best "bridge beer" by this brewery for the casual beer drinker. This particular brew lacks the distinctive banana and clove flavors found in the German Wheats (Weizens), but that's typical of an American Wheat.

Cactus Queen

Brewed as Yellow Rose's interpretation of the IPA style this copper colored beer is one of the finest products of the brewery. It is pleasantly hopped, but not overly so and has a distinct maltiness. Probably the second best brew YR makes (see below for the best)

Honcho Grande

Intended as an English brown ale in the style of Newcastle etc... this dark brown beer isn't quite Newcastle, but is a very well made beer. Malty with little detectable hoppiness (exactly what you expect in a brown ale). Overall, a well made American version of a classic English style.

Vigilante Porter

Semi translucent but very deep in a blackish amber color, this beer sports a malty nose with vaguely alcoholic overtones. Clean taste with malty, especially chocolate malt and coffee overtones. Also found the beer to be slightly sweet, but not cloyingly so. While some Porters are even richer (such as Anchor and Sierra Nevada's interpretations) this beer is a fine interpretation of the style and a very drinkable beer.

Wildcatter's Refined Stout

The king of the Yellow Rose line, in my opinion, is this beer. Rich in malty sweetness, but with just the right balance of roasty flavors, this ebony beer with a coffee colored head personifies all the high points seen in the finest English sweet style stouts. Fantastic nose, too. You should really seek out and experience this beer if it is at all possible for you to.
If you're wondering about the name change, the brewery was forced to drop the "Crude" appelation and replace it with "Refined" due some questionable litigation by another Texas brewery that will remain nameless. Can't we all just get along?

Yellow Rose Pale Ale

This English pale ale (as opposed to the more prevalent American Pale Ales like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) has a maltier expression with less emphasis on hoppiness. It is a fine beer and very drinkable. Light copper in color. English Pale Ale is generally considered to be a cousin to the more widely known Bitter. However, EPA generally lacks the edgy hoppy/woody flavor and relative stillness of the Bitter style opting for a nutty/malty type flavor. Other than Yellow Rose's, I dont think I've ever had an example of this style brewed commercially in America. That shows a certain willingness to gamble on quality beer (in the face of a relatively low beer knowledge base among the general public). Overall, Yellow Rose brews high quality beers which uniformly show an excellence and, more importantly, consistency from batch to batch that distinguishes YR as one of the premier Texas micros.